Readers will also be able to find the latest evaluations and evidence from policymakers and law enforcement officers from organizations such as Amnesty International and C.O.P.S. This section of the Hub includes an overview of these topics as well as an annotated list of relevant resources. Lastly, readers can click on key issues to find JJIE news stories about targeting gun violence in the U.S.

Youth gun violence is an epidemic, a complex issue that needs ongoing research and attention to understand why children resort to using guns. Researchers have made great progress toward understanding the characteristics of youth gun violence. For example, street shootings happen far more often than mass shootings, but the American public is often unaware of this because street shootings are underreported. Utilizing methods from the field of epidemiology, researchers have been able to uncover how and why gun violence manifests and is transmitted through communities. This knowledge gives our society the information it needs to develop community-based interventions to interrupt the spread of this contagion.

Along with research efforts toward the development of interventions, evaluation of their impact on the community is necessary to understand what works and what doesn’t during the implementation process. Building an evaluation mechanism into each intervention helps to highlight common issues and direct future planning. For instance, one difference between interventions that find success and those that don’t is the quality of communication and strategy among the multiple agencies involved. Future efforts toward interrupting youth gun violence would benefit from an enhanced communication and planning system between local and federal agencies that is built into the intervention process.

Youth gun violence is not a partisan debate about gun control; it is a public health issue. To otherwise distract the American public from the statistics of childhood gun deaths and the possibilities available for reducing them only serves to undermine real progress toward protecting American children. Here at JJIE, we are committed to disseminating up-to-date research on the state of youth gun violence and its prevention. It is our hope that this new section of the Resource Hub will support the growing efforts being made by the American public toward stopping this terrible fact of modern American life.